Monitored English Learners in Oregon

Under Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), as amended by ESSA [Section 3121(a)(5)], school districts are required to report on the number and percentage of former English Learners (ELs) meeting state standards for four years. In this brief, we refer to the former ELs monitored in these four years as Monitored English Learners (MELs). The following document provides a performance profile of MELs at various points in time (i.e., first, second, third, and fourth year) following their transitioning out of the EL services for the 2022-2023 school year.

In addition to the statewide trends, the information displayed is broken down by each District, each monitoring Year, as well as each Subject and Gradeband. In line with the Joint Guidelines by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, the performance of Never English Learners (NELs) is also displayed side by side as a way to provide a means of comparison for each breakdown.

Note that for Math and ELA, state assessments are given in grades 3-8 and 11, and for Science, state assessments are given in grades 5, 8, and 11. In addition to the proportion of students meeting versus not meeting the state assessment standards in these domains, the raw numbers of students used to calculate these proportions are provided in the tabular form for further clarity. Additionally, note that students (i.e., NELs and MELs) included in the profiles exclude those receiving special education services recognizing the special needs of dually identified English Learners (OSEP, 2022).

Each graph displays the percentage (Y axis) of MELs and NELs meeting or exceeding versus not meeting (X axis) the State standards. The dropdown menu on the left may be used to locate the graphical as wells as the tabular information for the state and the districts. One can also use the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut to find a district of interest by partially typing the district name into the pop-up search box.

Statewide Trends

Statewide Graphical Profile

Elementary School

The statewide trends at the Elementary level (grades 3-5) are closely comparable for Never ELs (NELs) and Monitored ELs (MELs) with respect to mathematics assessments (~45% of both populations meeting/exceeding the state standards).

Regarding ELA, monitored ELs tend to outperform their NEL peers, especially so in the final year of their monitoring status (53% for NELs vs. 69% for MELs).

Regarding Science, monitored ELs seem to perform at a lower level compared to their NELs peers across the first three years in which they are monitored (38% for NELs vs. ~18% for MELs). However, this gap seem to shrink significantly between NELs, and MELs in the final year of their monitoring status (38% for NELs vs. 33% for MELs).

Middle School

The statewide trends at the Middle School level (grades 6-8) are not as comparable for Never ELs (NELs) and Monitored ELs (MELs) with respect to mathematics assessments. Specifically, a much smaller proportion of the MELs tend to often meet/exceed the state standards than that for their NEL peers. That said, the gap tends to get slightly smaller for monitored ELs in the final year of their monitoring status (35% for NELs vs. 20% for MELs).

Regarding ELA, NELs, overall, tend to outperform their MELs peers. However, once again, the gap between NELs and MELs slightly improves for MELs in the final year of their monitoring status (53% for NELs vs. 35% for MELs).

Regarding Science, NELs, overall, tend to outperform their MELs peers across all the four years that MELs are monitored (33% for NELs vs. ~10% for MELs). This is a concerning trend that the districts need to pay particular attention to by establishing a robust tracking system to ensure A) identifying the root causes of such a gap (e.g., decline in English language proficiency post exiting the EL services), and B) provision of additional support tailored to the Monitored ELs’ needs to meet/exceed the state standards in Science.

High School

The statewide trends at the High School level (grade 11) are not as comparable for Never ELs (NELs) and Monitored ELs (MELs) with respect to mathematics assessments. Indeed, for the most part, the trends mirror the picture described at the Middle School level. Specifically, a much smaller proportion of the monitored ELs across their years of being in the monitored status tend to meet/exceed the state standards than that for their NEL peers (26% for NELs vs. ~9% for MELs). Unlike the Middle School level, this gap tends to indeed get wider for monitored ELs in the final year of their monitoring status (26% for NELs vs. 6% for MELs).

Regarding ELA, NELs, overall, tend to outperform their MELs peers (55% for ELAs vs. 29% for MELs). Interestingly, however, the gap between NELs and MELs is slightly narrower for MELs in the first year of their monitoring status following their transitioning out of the EL services (53% for NELs vs. 34% for MELs). It is important to know that:

ELPA assessments and state assessments in Oregon are known to be highly correlated with one another (Oregon’s Summative English Language Proficiency Assessment, 2016)

Thus, this last observation might, once again, emphasize the need for a robust system of tracking MELs, and providing them with the opportunity to receive English Language services to improve their access to the content following their potentially premature transitioning out of the EL services.

Regarding Science, NELs, overall, tend to outperform their MELs peers across all the four years that MELs are monitored (40% for NELs vs. 16% for MELs). Interestingly, however, the gap between NELs and MELs is slightly narrower for MELs in the first and the second year of their monitoring status following their transitioning out of the EL services (40% for NELs vs. 19% and 20% for MELs in the first and second year of monitoring). This observation might, once again, emphasize the need for a robust system of tracking MELs and providing them with the opportunity to receive English Language services to improve their access to the content following their potentially premature transitioning out of the EL services.

Summary

This research brief highlights the importance of providing adequate EL services for English learners to access the current academic content but also to prepare them for the challenging academic content ahead. Such an approach to EL education often necessitates facilitating MELs’ re-enterence into the EL services when such a need demonstrably arises.

Worthy of a mention, however, is the fact that the current statewide ratio of the number of students re-entering the EL services following their initial exit (n = 16) to all the students in the MEL status (n = 17,089) is extremely low (0.09%), a fact that demands more attention on the part of the school districts in the state. This fact is especially important in light of A) MELs being often outperformed by their NEL peers, and B) the potential for the English Language Proficiency Assessments (ELPA) given to the English Learners being highly correlated with their success in the state assessments.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the performance profiles for each school district may be different. As a result, we invite the districts to review their own specific profiles in both the graphical and the tabular forms below.